The ATF Uses The Camden County Sheriff To Make Hay Against The Missouri Second Amendment Preservation Act
BY Herschel Smith
3 years ago
I published Idiot ATF Agents thinking that it was the full story. How stupid of me.
Well, well, well. The truth comes out, and the irony bites.
CAMDEN COUNTY, Mo. — Camden County Sheriff Tony Helms says the ATF raid on a local gun store in Osage Beach on Tuesday caught him by surprise.
“It makes me mad I was not notified,” Helms said. “ATF agents were in my office the day before, to discuss a separate issue and they did not tell me a thing,” Helms said. “They called me at 1 p.m., on Tuesday, and apologized for not telling me, saying they were not comfortable having too many people know about the raid before it happened. They were hitting several gun shops as part of an annual thing.”
“Before SAPA, (the Second Amendment Preservation Act, passed in June 2021) they would have notified me if they were going to be in my county,” Helms added.
Oh. I see. You know where this is headed, don’t you?
According to the gun shop owner Jim Skelton, approximately fifteen agents entered the Skelton Tactical gun shop on Tuesday, seven deep, in full riot gear, bearing automatic weapons. The agents seized all of the firearms from both the gun shop and from his brother Ike Skelton’s store next door. “They said it had to do with the way I was selling firearms,” Jim Skelton said. The ATF also demanded Ike stop filming the raid on his cell phone. The ATF took Jim’s license to sell firearms. “I will appeal and fight this with everything I have,” Jim said.
“The feds regulate guns coming from the factory, to the shops, to the persons who buy them,” Helms said.
“I am all for second amendment rights,” Sheriff Helms said. “I pushed for SAPA. We were the first county to endorse SAPA. I own 20 guns and I teach a conceal and carry class. I am all for responsible law-abiding gun owners. I don’t want the feds coming and taking our guns.”
[ … ]
“Besides the cut in partnership, the county is now limited to access to ATF resources and technology,” Helms said. “Before, if a gun was used in a crime in Camden County, we could ask ATF to run a check, to see if the same gun was also used in another crime, anywhere in the country.”
It’s that horrible 2A preservation act that caused the ridiculous ATF raid for selling a muzzle loader to someone without a Form 4473 (even though one isn’t required).
Moreover (whimper, sigh, cry), we don’t get access to ATF resources, and we don’t talk anymore, not really, not like it used to be. I don’t want anyone to take our guns, but I do miss my buddies so much!
You see, the ATF is playing hard ball, and the Sheriff is a little girl. They’ve (the ATF) got the perfect patsy.
Someone who initially supported the 2A preservation act, but who now sees the error of his ways and wants it to be repealed, or so we must conclude.
Rather, if he had any balls, he’d have the ATF agents followed and harassed by his own deputies, and eventually run out of town or otherwise make it so uncomfortable to infringe on the 2A in his county that the ATF has been defanged.
Or, he could find a way to perform his own raid of ATF offices and throw them in the hoosegow for a few cooling off days.
These are just starting points. There is a whole host of things he could do.
But he buckled and cried like a little girl that he wasn’t notified by the ATF because of that awful 2A preservation act when he could have stopped the raid (or maybe he could have, he doesn’t say, just that he wanted to be notified).
Exactly how being notified of the raid before it happened would have done anything useful, he doesn’t say. He just wants to be buddies with he ATF again because he misses them.
It all falls into place, and it all makes sense now.
The ATF must really dislike the 2A preservation act if they’re going this far out of the way to insult local law enforcement. If I was local law enforcement, I’d make sure they knew how I felt about their presence in my county.
But then I’m not the Camden County Sheriff, and I don’t whimper when people don’t want to be my friends.
Cowards. They have no functional email that accepts URLs or I would send this commentary to them.
On November 14, 2021 at 11:20 pm, George 1 said:
In this day and age if a Sheriff wants anything to do with the FBI or the ATF they are not our friends. The feds, and the vast majority of the state and locals, have proven who they are conclusively.
On November 15, 2021 at 1:02 am, Jimmy the Saint said:
“Moreover (whimper, sigh, cry), we don’t get access to ATF resources, and we don’t talk anymore, not really, not like it used to be. I don’t want anyone to take our guns, but I do miss my buddies so much!”…
“Before, if a gun was used in a crime in Camden County, we could ask ATF to run a check, to see if the same gun was also used in another crime, anywhere in the country.”
Missouri did just catch a serial killer by tracking the firearm he used (found 4 additional killings, I think), so there probably is some value in being able to get that information relatively quickly.
On November 15, 2021 at 2:07 am, Chris Mallory said:
A 1898 30-40 is in all probability a Springfield model 1892, the Americ!n Krag. It was the first American military rifle to use smokeless powder, but it uses the “caliber-charge” (like the 45-70) designation of older black powder rounds,, causing some to mistakenly refer to it as a black powder round. Doubtful anyone was making a muzzle loader in1898.
I suspect the ATF will say that since 30-40 Krag ammo is/was still being produced by Remington, Winchester, and Hornaday that it required a 4473. But that is just a guess.
On November 15, 2021 at 4:12 am, Archer said:
Or, the sheriff could take this raid to his county commissioners and demand they strengthen the SAPA by adding teeth: making it an unlawful act — preferably a felony, given all the NFA hardware the BATFE brought — to harass law-abiding gun owners and sellers, and empowering the Sheriff’s Office to arrest, hold, and criminally charge federal agents who violate the county’s citizens’ rights.
He could do that, and thereby prove he supports 2A rights like he says.
Or he could keep whining.
On November 15, 2021 at 8:46 am, blake said:
Our good sheriff’s duty to his constituents, when the ATF was in his office, was to remind them they are in the county at his pleasure, and, as such, if they do anything contrary to the recently passed law, it means they are subject to arrest.
But, I guess all of the milsurp toys from the fedgov bought the good sheriff off.
On November 15, 2021 at 9:56 am, Fred said:
If the 4473 wasn’t a registration for arms none of this would be taking place. The problem is the gun registry and it will be the hinge upon which the shooting starts. Registration is for confiscation.
If, IF!!!, 4473’s are not required by law to be sent to WV until upon close of store, or transfer of store ownership, or death of seller, HOW did the ATF know that any gun at all had been sold?
You see, the seller is an unpaid agent of the state serving to register arms. He has as much culpability as the ATF itself in this. I don’t feel sorry for him in the least. He made his bed with the enemy, a known snake, and he got bit.
Americans can’t even know right from wrong because they’ve been blinded to God. Sin always leads to MORE sin.
On November 15, 2021 at 5:43 pm, ExpatNJ said:
“ATF … were in my office the day before … and they did not tell me a thing,” Helms said.
“… Helms said, with a straight face and his fingers crossed behind is back”.
ATF told him. Helms is either practicing CYA (for re-election); or, AFT warned him to keep out of it and his mouth shut until it was all over – “or else”.
On November 15, 2021 at 7:17 pm, Chris Mallory said:
“If, IF!!!, 4473’s are not required by law to be sent to WV until upon close of store, or transfer of store ownership, or death of seller, HOW did the ATF know that any gun at all had been sold?”
I would guess because an ATF agent made the purchase or was standing at the counter when the rifle was sold. Reading the original story it sounds like he had more undercover ATF agents in his store than he had actual customers.
On November 15, 2021 at 8:16 pm, Longbow said:
If the Krag rifle was manufactured in or before 1898, it is an antique, and does NOT require a 4473 before being handed from one free man to the next, regardless of what cartridge it chambers.
When it is PROVEN that the rifle was legally sold, the ATF will be forced to return all of the inventory they confiscated, if they can find it all. But that is no matter, because they struck fear into the hearts of several gun dealers and ruined the dealers lives and livelihoods, which is what they were after anyway.